Salad, vegan date scones a'coming

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This salad was fantastic: a green goddess green salad. This dressing is the bomb. Oliver ate about a quarter of it including all of the cucumbers, radishes and goat cheese. I was bursting with pride, especially when he asked, "what is this cheese?" Upon my answering, "goat cheese," he replied, "I like goat cheese!" Good palate young man. He just convinced me to let him nap in underpants. I love the spirit but as we are only 1 week into the potty-training, I'm wondering what I'll find when he awakes. Ah well, who am I to quash his big boy attitude!? At Pilates this morning, I was struck with a yen for some date-oat scones scented with orange zest that I've not made in quite some time. They're vegan and just wonderful! I found this recipe in an online forum in which folks were attempting to recreate the vegan scones from Whole Foods (they will not share the recipe). So I now make the version I adapted from some other enthusiastic soul's attempt and will share it with you soon!

French onion soup in the works, another essential product

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Boy did my onion goggles come in handy tonight. Knee-deep in onions for the soup, my eyes were pleading for the protection, and voila, I gave it to them. What a solid product. In this picture, you might also notice the olive wood spoon at right. If you don't have a such a spoon, you might consider getting one. They are so sturdy, don't scratch your cast-iron and nonstick pots and are beautiful. Quick story from memory lane (this never ceases to make me laugh). T, J and I were in Italy for three weeks visiting my sister when J was about 15 months old. On the day in focus, we were in Montepulciano, a marvelous Renaissance hilltown in southern Tuscany. The Italians weren't joking when they ascribed the moniker, hilltown, to the villages they did; parts of Montepulciano are so steep you've got to lean in at an unnatural angle and really engage your quads and glutes to head up the roads. It's breathtaking, oozing charm, antiquity and tradition from its every pore.

Brief interjection- the onions are browning beautifully and smell incredibly. Aah... I can't wait.

Anyway, we were, naturally, exploring one of the local housewares store and came across a vast array of olive wood kitchen utensils. At this point in his life, T was still an Atkins diet adherent and so was big into omelets for breakfast; he called them Tomelets. In that vein, he decided to purchase a paddle-type spoon specifically for his morning eggs. He chose one -the one in this picture- and in purchasing it, the saleswoman asked what he'd be using it for. He said eggs, and she replied, with a definite look in her eye, "in fact, it's for pizzas" because it is so large (15" or 16"). To me, this just encapsulated T so well. He thinks big and likes extreme quality. We bought this spoon and have never used it for pizzas. But I do use it all the time, and it's magnificent.

Good grief, just look what happened during that recounting. Fabulous! It is abundantly clear to me, upon inhaling this aroma, why someone chose Gruyère as the cheese o' choice for this soup. A perfect marriage.